041017 Cattle Shipments to Cuba May Resume

Tampa, FL - After months of delays caused by unrelated world events, the John Parke Wright IV is optimistic he'll be shipping 300 head through Port Manatee to Cuba by the end of the year.

"We're just waiting for (Cuban) cattle inspectors to come here, go to the ranches, select the animals and certify them for export," Wright said during a break in a U.S.-Cuba policy and trade summit at the University of Tampa. "I'm hoping they'll be here in November and we can ship cattle through Port Manatee in December."

The cattle, including about 80 from Jim Strickland's ranch near Parrish, originally were to be on Cuban soil by April. They would have been the first Florida beef cattle to land at the island nation since 1960, when the U.S. economic embargo was enacted.

But the discovery of mad-cow disease in a Washington state cow last December prompted the Cuban government to postpone the Florida shipment. Cuba relented after several months passed without another case of the fatal bovine disease in the United States.

"It's amazing what a difference one cow can make," said Wright, whose family was a major supplier of cattle to Cuba before the embargo.

The estimated $1 million cattle deal also has been caught in the crosshairs of U.S.-Cuba politics. The Bush administration, which tightened travel restrictions to Cuba last year, has been increasingly denying visas for Cuban officials to visit the United States. Earlier this week, the State Department refused to allow 67 Cuban scholars to attend a Las Vegas conference.

Wright said the Cuban inspectors have "had trouble" getting visas, but was optimistic the officials soon would be in Florida.

The cattle shipment would be the third to pass through Port Manatee on its way to Cuba. The port handled two shipments of an animal feed supplement last year, and port officials embarked on a trade mission last November that resulted in Cuba's pledge to consider using the Tampa Bay port.

T racy Mondor is among those who hope Cuba keeps its promise, especially if the embargo is completely lifted. Now, U.S. companies can sell only medical supplies and agricultural products to Cuba legally, and only on a cash basis.

"It would be great for all of us in Manatee County because it would open up a whole new market," said Mondor, a partner in Alpico International, a freight forwarder at Port Manatee.

Many others attending the summit agreed, with several panelists saying that lifting the trade and travel restrictions is the only way to bring about real change in Cuba.

"It's crazy," U.S. Rep. William D. Delahunt, D-Mass., said of U.S. efforts to oust Fidel Castro's government. "It's the dumbest policy on the face of the earth."

Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and former chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana, said the policy has made less sense as time passed - especially after the breakup of the Soviet Union, which backed Castro.

"For goodness sake, the Cold War is over," Smith said. "Let's listen to the religious leaders and leading dissidents in Cuba, and listen to our own good sense."

But Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba and an embargo supporter, warned that American taxpayers could end up subsidizing Castro if full trade is reopened. The sanctions are needed because Cuba remains a "rogue state" that supports terrorism and represses its people, he said.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com